Digital advertising needs a reality check. comScore has the solution. DIGITAL IS A POWERFUL AND GROWING BRAND ADVERTISING MEDIUM, but a lack of validated measurement that’s comparable to other media, such as TV, has limited its full potential. comScore has unique visibility into the complexities around why that’s the case, and what can be done about it. This booklet uncovers key findings about what’s really going on and unveils a new measurement solution from comScore that can help move digital forward.

3. Digital advertising needs
a reality check.
comScore has the solution.
DIGITAL IS A POWERFUL AND GROWING BRAND ADVERTISING MEDIUM,
but a lack of validated measurement that’s comparable to other media, such as TV,
has limited its full potential. comScore has unique visibility into the complexities
around why that’s the case, and what can be done about it.
This booklet uncovers key findings about what’s really going on and unveils a new
measurement solution from comScore that can help move digital forward.

4. Take a closer look.
IN DECEMBER 2011, COMSCORE CONDUCTED A U.S.-BASED
CHARTER STUDY that leveraged a new measurement technology
to better understand the quality of campaign delivery and to investigate
discrepancies between expectations and reality when it comes to ad
delivery today. The results are insightful.
The comprehensive study included:
12 national brands
2,975 placements
380,898 site domains
1,772,117,123 impressions
100% delivered in iframes
0 publisher site pixels required
The following contains a sneak peek into the results.
The full report will be published in March 2012.

5. Allstate
Select companies participating in the U.S. Charter Study

6. The findings are eye-opening.
THERE IS MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE. The future of digital advertising
depends on the ability to validate the delivery of quality ad impressions to an
intended audience in a way that can be compared across different media with a
high degree of confidence and transparency. Visibility is important, but it’s not the
only part of the equation.
This booklet focuses on 5 key aspects of ad delivery validation and the
complexities they each present in a digital context. These must be addressed both
individually and holistically in order for digital advertising to deliver optimal value to
the industry and its many players.
in-view
target audience
geography
brand safety
fraud

8. When an ad is not visible,
consumers miss the point.
What’s the value of an ad
that can’t be seen?
OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND. Internet pages aren’t static. Neither are the
ads on these pages. There are a host of reasons, unique to the digital channel,
why ads are sometimes delivered but not seen. An ad can’t work if no one sees
it. It’s that simple.
It’s not just an ‘above the fold versus below the fold’ issue. Sometimes people
scroll down quickly to get to the content they want, and miss home page ads.
In those cases, the action might be below the fold. Compelling ads can work
in both places – but only if they’re visible.
IN-VIEW

9. CHARTER On average ONLY 69%
FINDING:
of ads were in-view, meaning...
3
out of
10
WERE
NEVER
SEEN

10. Think you’re hitting 100%
of your target audience?
Think again.
Are you counting cookies or reaching people?
LET’S BE REALISTIC. Cookies are not people. When you plan and measure
campaigns using cookies, it’s nearly impossible to know if you reached your target
audience. Because multiple people share the same computer within a household
and multiple cookies can be served to the same person, the numbers don’t add up.
If your goal is to understand how well a campaign hit its target audience, make
sure people are at the center of the equation.
TARGET AUDIENCE

11. 60+% 5+ 35%
of home unique cookies of people
computers are served delete their
have more per person cookies
than one user per campaign each month
on average in the U.S.

12. CHARTER FINDINGS:
73%
of audience-targeted
placements used
data beyond age,
gender and
HHI
Demographic cookie
accuracy ranged from
14% to 96%

13. People are more than just
a demographic.
When you target ads to an audience, shouldn’t
your validation measurement follow suit?
AUDIENCES HAVE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THEIR OWN. We know that
different people with the same demographic makeup can have wildly different
purchase habits, which is why audience buying and selling has become a standard
for many in the industry. When evaluating and validating ad delivery, measurement
must play by the same rules. It must validate delivery to these specific audiences
rather than simply validating based on age, gender and household income.
Because of shared computer usage and data-source quality issues, even
demographic cookie targeting doesn’t always hit the target.

14. Your target geography
has borders, but the Internet
is everywhere.
How do you ensure your ads are
delivered where your product is available?
GEOGRAPHIC SPILLAGE IS A WASTED TRIP. Because the Internet is
borderless, and anyone can access content from anywhere, it’s sometimes tough
to guarantee that an ad will be delivered within the desired geographic area.
Knowing that campaigns run in the intended geography is a key component
of ad delivery validation and campaign measurement. After all, what’s the point
of delivering an ad and building a brand in a region where your product is
not available?
GEOGRAPHY

15. CHARTER FINDING:
Up to 15% of impressions
were wasted because they
were SERVED
OUTSIDE THE
DESIRED
GEOGRAPHY

16. Good brands show up in
bad places. What’s shocking
is how they get there.
How many stops do your ads make on
the way to final delivery?
MAKE SURE YOUR ADS ARRIVE SAFELY. Because of the complex daisy
chain of ad delivery, even the most careful players don’t have total control over
where an ad might land. When your ad runs in the wrong place, whether that’s
on a site with objectionable content or next to content that doesn’t resonate with
your brand, that can be a land mine.
Don’t wait until after the campaign to find out there was a problem. By then
it’s too late. Besides, who really wants to deal with make-goods? Take action in
real time during the campaign to make sure your ads are not appearing in unsafe
environments. When all your ads run in all the right places, everybody wins.
BRAND SAFETY

17. START AD EXCHANGE
AD SERVER
AD NETWORK
AD NETWORK
PUBLISHER
PUBLISHER’S FRIEND WHO
BORROWED THE AD TAGS
CHARTER FINDING:
72%
of campaigns had at least some ads running in
content that was NOT BRAND SAFE

18. 1 pixel
can make a very bad impression.
A ONE-PIXEL WINDOW CAN HIDE THE WHOLE WORLD. While the majority of
individuals in the digital advertising ecosystem operate with the best of intentions,
like any industry, there are fraudulent characters that can spoil the show. By placing
a tiny pixel on a user’s screen, hundreds of ads can load and be counted as
delivered impressions when they were never seen by anyone, and therefore never
had a chance to make a brand impact.
Fraud detection helps ensure you only count messages that connect with your
audience and not pixels served up by bad actors.
FRAUD

20. Digital advertising needs
a reality check.
comScore has the solution.

21. in-view
right audience
in geography
brand safe
not fraudulent

22. Let the evolution begin.
Introducing
validated Campaign Essentials™ (vCE)
THE LATEST INNOVATION FROM COMSCORE.
validated Campaign Essentials (vCE) is a holistic solution for complete campaign
delivery validation and in-flight optimization. Unlike existing single-point solutions,
vCE provides an unduplicated accounting of impressions delivered across a variety
of critical dimensions. These include ads delivered in-view, to the right audience, in
the right geography, in brand safe environments and absent of fraud.
It’s holistic. It’s simple. It’s comparable. And it’s here today.

24. vCE is a holistic, simple
and comparable solution for
validating the value of digital.
HOLISTIC. Measuring campaign delivery via multiple, disparate sources skews
delivery validation results and distorts campaign effectiveness measurement.
vCE eliminates these differences by validating ad delivery in a single source.
SIMPLE. Today’s complex digital advertising ecosystem has driven up the cost of ad
delivery measurement and driven down the ROI of advertising. vCE opens the door
for much-needed standardization and simplicity by providing a single planning and
measurement validation solution that utilizes a single ad tag throughout.
COMPARABLE. Because digital and TV are inherently different due to the way ads
are viewed, using the same GRP metric to evaluate ad delivery for both is misleading.
vCE solves this issue by including only validated digital ad impressions, making it
a unique solution that’s truly cross-media comparable.
EVERYBODY WINS.

25. HOLISTIC
single source
SIMPLE
single tag
COMPARABLE
cross media

27. The future is now in focus.
comScore is advancing how the world
sees digital advertising.
See what vCE can do for you. Contact us today.
online www.comscore.com/vCE
email learnmore@comscore.com
twitter @AdEffx

28. in-view
right audience
in geography
brand safe
not fraudulent
learnmore@comscore.com www.comscore.com/vCE © 2012 comScore, Inc.